How the pandemic is changing today's marketers
In the past year, life has changed for many people across the world - some more drastic than others. The human race has suffered loss at a scale none could conceive in our lifetime. While vaccines continue to roll out, an air of uncertainty still lingers. Is this truly the new normal?
For the most part, marketers (and almost every role in business) has seen significant changes to their job. The stereotypical office environment has went atypical. Zoom hangouts are the new coffee breaks.
Over the first year of this pandemic, marketers have had to made major adjustments to their job function.
Here’s what we’ve had to adjust.
Everyone works from home. Remote is the new office space, and you’ve scored your own private office. The perks of being able to do your work from anywhere.
No more commuting. I always despised the idea of spending most of my life in a car or train, to and from work. It subconsciously brings plenty of mental stress.
There’s little reason to dress up proper anymore. You essentially don’t need dress pants, socks, shoes, cologne or perfume, blazers, and, for those that like to keep their look fresh, don’t require the monthly style overhaul.
You’re taking less steps. The walk to the car, to work, out for lunch, around the office, and back home accounted for the minimum steps needed to keep your body active. That’s now gone.
Say good-bye to work perks. No more free craft beer, team lunches, and chipping in a couple bucks from your pay cheque for the team building fund (which the company should’ve been paying for in the first place).
Mental health has deteriorated. Lack of socializing has done a number to our mental health. Less productivity, more agitation. It took far too long, but at least employee benefit plans have started to include services from psychologists and social workers.
Less full-time hiring, more freelancing. Companies are hiring less full-time, in-house employees, and instead relying on freelancers and remote workers. Freelance platforms have exploded since the pandemic started. There’s a new definition for job security, and we’re responsible for it.
Companies are offering less pay for those working from home. Unfair practice, for the most part. Are they paying strictly for your time, or your productive output?
Certain verticals such as event marketing had to pivot. That means learning the latest in event technology and virtual software. This mainly impacted festival organizers, musicians, venue spaces, and so much more.
People have moved out of urban centres into rural towns. What’s the point of being close to work when there is no office to commute to? The idea of spending an entire year, 24 hours a day in a small box downtown was dreadful to many - that’s why 50,000+ Torontonians between the age of 20 and 35 moved to smaller towns across Canada, creating a questionable housing bubble. While skeptics claim everyone will get bored and move back to the city, what makes them assume we’ll be back to normal so soon?
Despite these set backs (and set forwards), in order to better accommodate for the future of marketing, here’s what really needs to happen.
Better organizational acceptance that remote is here to stay. By making remote work culturally OK - just like Shopify, Spotify, and Ford has - it enables a more progressive future.
Salary that doesn’t differentiate between remote and in-person. Corporate insecurity has led to the idea that employees should pay to be able to work from home, which is complete bullshit. You’re being paid for your brain. There shouldn’t be a discount for that.
Shortened work weeks. There was once a time where it was sign of pride to show up to work sick, only to be turned away. And illogically, you were commended for prioritizing your work over your health. That’s over with now. Shortened work weeks allow better work-life balance while maintaining company productivity, and slow any spread of germs and diseases.
Better ways to brainstorm. With everything remote, one aspect that has fallen off drastically is collaboration. Creative brainstorm sessions are just not as effective remotely as it is in-person.
Better trust between management and employees. It made me sick to see new technologies emerge during the pandemic that tracked employees by GPS and allowed full visibility of their homes. That fundamentally destroys all level of trust. There needs to be a stronger bond between company and person.
More comprehensive benefits and health plans. Less social interaction requires better health plans catered for remote workers. That includes 100% coverage on psychotherapy, home fitness equipment reimbursements, food delivery credits, and a family-time fund. Heck, at least give ‘em a free Peloton!
Team outings (post-pandemic). Ultimately you need to see your co-workers. There’s something about not being around people that negatively affects our mental health. Even if it’s once per quarter or per year, allowing your team to hang out with each other helps improve team moral and enables self-betterment.
More full-time, permanent opportunities. There are marketers who do prefer working permanent roles, and the pandemic should not change the option. This also ties with the lack of trust between management and employees. I get it - it’s expensive for companies to hire full-time and let them go. However the pandemic has shifted that train of thought. Despite organizations seeking contractors over full-time roles, there still needs to be roles in-house to maintain organizational stability.
Building communities online is more important than ever. While there were some that would argue that their customers aren’t in front of their phones or computers that much, that has changed and almost every customer is glued to their devices (sometimes in unhealthy ways). For example, in retail e-commerce, customer loyalty is more important because it’s so easy to shop at competitors. Now that everyone shops online, you really need to build that loyal base of customers. With so many businesses shutting down this past year, t’s actually a must at this point.
Utilizing more technology in your role. There’s an app for everything these days. Make your life easier by taking a few days every month to learn about the latest technology. If others are using it, why aren’t you?
A salute to those who have been continuously wearing a mask for the past year 🙌
Your efforts to minimize the transmission of this horrendous disease will never go unnoticed. Thank you for protecting your friends, family, neighbours, and strangers alike.
We’ll get through this. I promise.
Normal led to this.
—Ed Yong, science journalist for The Atlantic, on the COVID-19 pandemic
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Your Investments 🚀
It’s been a quiet week in the stock market. To be honest, I haven’t even looked at my portfolio. Nothing appears newsworthy at the moment, other than your standard long-term recommendations that are more speculative than concrete. If anything, I’m just waiting for the Coinbase IPO, and for Ark Investments to launch their space exploration ETF, ARKX.
In the cryptocurrency front, Cardano (ADA)’s inclusion on Coinbase Pro bumped the price up 20% this week. Traditionally, any cryptocurrency that gets added to Coinbase will see a bump in price, primarily because it’s the most popular cryptocurrency exchange in the world. But I personally wouldn’t buy it right now as it seems like it’s hovering at the top. Will wait until the market dips again before re-considering it.
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